Thursday, May 31, 2012

7 Months Old

Harper,

This month went by faster than any other and oh girl - you have turned far more into a kid than a baby. You are full of personality, curiosity, mimicking, exploration and happiness. We miss you as our vulnerable, little baby but we also love this exciting little person you are growing into.

This month, you have turned into a climbing machine! If you are not climbing, you are thinking about what you can climb. And even if you're not thinking about it, your hands are intuitively just looking for something to grab onto so you can pull yourself up. At any given time, you will crawl across the room, sit yourself up, climb into a standing position, play for a bit, sit back down, and then crawl back across the room. You are loving all of your new skills! Your Cici gave us the idea to stack our sofa cushions in a pile to give you something soft (safe) to climb and that's your favorite place to play. We have small buckets of toys in every room of the house and you know right were they are and you like to dump them out to explore. These days, you have two very favorite play toys (both given to you by JillyBean!!):

We have noticed you recognizing all kinds of words. Especially your own name, daddy and Rex/Roxy. When I say, 'Where is daddy?', you look straight at him. Same with Rex/Roxy - though, you don't know them apart...you just look for a dog. You also cry out 'momma' all the time. I still don't think you are referring to me when you say it so I'm hesitant to call it your first word. However, anytime you are upset, you cry "momma" and when I pick you up, you stop. How will I know if you are saying it for me??...hmmm. Everyone tells me I will "just know".

Speaking of the dogs, you are now bigger than them and a few times, you have grabbed their hair too hard. Thankfully, there has been no snapping back at you but rather, Rex just runs from you when you get close and Roxy endures it because she likes to lick leftover food off of you. It's pretty funny.

This month, we took your first international trip to Aunt Amber's wedding in Cabo San Lucas and you traveled wonderfully. You are so incredibly adaptable and truly just went with the flow. Your dad & I were so proud of you - you are our greatest accomplishment. You have brought your dad & I closer than we ever knew was possible and our shared love for you has shown us more beauty than I could dream of. We.Are.Blessed!

STATS:
You are still in 6-9 month clothes.

HEALTH:
You are one healthy little baby! We have had no health scares this month with the exception of your first head injury (that turned out to be nothing). You fell and hit your head HARD on the tiled floor at the hotel in Mexico. Your dad & I were so scared but you cried for 2-3 minutes and then were fine. We called your doctor and watched you like a hawk for the next many hours. It barely even swelled and by that evening, you couldn't even see any of the scratches. Doh!...crazy first time worried parents.

SLEEPING:
For most of the month, you maintained your sleep schedule of 7:30pm - 4:30am (feed) 4:45am -
7:30am. However, after having gotten back from Cabo, you seem to have adjusted to their time zone and are doing 8:30 - 5:30, 5:45 - 8:30. We haven't figured out how to get you to drop that random snack bottle in the early morning hour but to be honest, we haven't tried hard at all. I usually bring you from your crib into our bed to take the early morning bottle and selfishly enjoy cuddling with you as we wake up together in the morning. I can hear more experienced moms saying "wow, she's setting herself up for trouble down the road", but whatever...it works for us and I love it!

You also take about a 1&1/2 - 2 hour nap in the mornings and a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. Sometimes, you also squeeze in a quick 30 min snoozer in the evening if your naps were cut short.

Lastly, when you get tired, you are out. It doesn't matter where you are or what's going on...when you want to sleep, you just close your eyes and there is no waking you up.

My sleeping beauty

You seriously fell asleep with the spoon in your mouth. You just passed out mid-eating!

You were asleep to go down the isle at Amber's wedding - there was no waking you up. You woke up mid-wedding...it was greatness!

DIET:
Just this week you started to enjoy eating...finally. You actually look for me to put the spoon back into your mouth and take a second bite. Getting you to eat has been such a beating. It was one of the things I was most looking forward to when I was pregnant (trying different foods, making your baby food, etc). However, up until now, I have dreaded each and every meal because you pitch a fit and are so unhappy. As I take you out of the high chair, you sing and play instantaneously - you just have not liked eating. I'm feeling very encouraged right now though because starting last week, you got interested in your pureed food and even let us feed you some finger food. As of now, we feed you on our mealtime at breakfast, lunch & dinner...I'm scared to jinx it so I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

DEVELOPMENT:
Your development is out of control:

You sit up.
You crawl.
You climb.
You like to stand while leaning against a table, the sofa, etc.
You like to hold our fingers and 'walk'.
You try to figure out complex toys (instead of just putting them into your mouth).
You mimic expressions, sounds and movements.
You 'talk'.
You explore.

Oh, and the cutest thing is that you have started to wave --- backwards. You just started this a few days ago but you've been doing it over and over again. You get excited at the sight of someone and wave with the palm of your hand pointed at you. Too cute!

TEETHING:
You still just have your two bottom teeth and girl, you like to bite! You put them on my arm and chomp down harder than I think even I could.

Two bottom teeth

LOVE/HATE:

You love climbing
You love biting & grabbing (dang!)
You love exploring new things
You love your momma & your daddy - a ton
You love to cuddle in bed in the mornings and take your time getting out of bed
You love momma & daddy's iPhones (uh-oh!)
You love playing independently but...
You also absolutely love playing with other kids
You love when we clap for you
You love when we dance with you
You love Rex & Roxy

You hate having anyone help you hold your bottle
You continue to hate having help to do anything...little miss independent
Overall, you are a very happy baby - there is not much you don't like!

I’m Kathy, born & raised in Texas, and in my mid-thirties (did I really just write ‘mid-thirties’??? – wow!). I live in Dallas with my the love of my life Matt (aka ‘the hubs’) and our beautiful baby girl Harper Kate who made her debut on 11/1/11.

"Don't ever let anyone or anything steal your smile!"

"Sometimes on the way to a dream, you get lost and find a better one."